Desktop switches randomly

My laptop has got openSUSE 11.1 (x86_64) installed. I have both Gnome and KDE desktops installed on it.

I prefer KDE over Gnome so I select it as the Desktop. My understanding is that it should remember what the last session was and go into it by default (this was the case for all the other systems I had).

However, after I logout it might be set to Gnome instead of KDE (i.e. automatically without me changing it back to Gnome). But the worst part is not even that, even after selecting KDE from there it might end up going to Gnome instead! So whenever I select KDE I’m never sure whether it will actually start in KDE or Gnome and to me it all seems very random. Sometimes even if I had selected Gnome it might actually end up going to KDE.

I’ve noticed that this happens on my Desktop computer as well (again running openSUSE 11.1). I’m not a root user in any of these systems and I suspect it’s something to do with the initial setup. I’ve asked the IT support guy and he’s told me that he hasn’t figured out the problem yet and the same thing has been happening to him as well.

Very odd. I never came across this before (maybe I missed it in the forum) and it certainly never happened to me.

lostidentity wrote:
> I’ve asked the IT support guy and he’s told me that he hasn’t
> figured out the problem yet and the same thing has been happening
> to him as well.

what operating system and version are you using?
copy and paste back to here the terminal output of this:


cat /etc/SuSE-release
cat /etc/issue


DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
posted via NNTP w/TBird 2.0.0.23 | KDE 3.5.7 | openSUSE 10.3
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CMedia 9761 AC’97 Audio

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Here’s the the output from my Desktop and Laptop computers.

Desktop

cat /etc/SuSE-release
openSUSE 11.1 (i586)
VERSION = 11.1

cat /etc/issue
Welcome to openSUSE 11.1 - Kernel \r (\l).

Laptop


cat /etc/SuSE-release
openSUSE 11.1 (x86_64)
VERSION = 11.1

cat /etc/issue
Welcome to openSUSE 11.1 - Kernel \r (\l).

Thanks.

lostidentity wrote:
> openSUSE 11.1 (i586)
> openSUSE 11.1 (x86_64)

well…shucks! since you said your “IT support guy” was having the
same problem i was thinking you maybe were using the commercial
version (SLED) and i was gonna quickly send you off to the novell
forums…

BUT, i can’t do that…and, frankly i am stumped by your
problem…i have never seen or heard of it before…never…

HOWEVER, since you (on two machines) and “your IT guy” have all seen
it i tend to believe you have somehow corrupted ALL systems within the
group…i do not know the specifics of how your
company/office/whatever cares and feeds all of your computers…but i
do know that there are at least THREE instances with a VERY strange
problem…and, i wonder if “your IT guy” has built a local repo for
updates/etc and that has somehow been corrupted…or what???

i very much doubt anyone here can trouble shoot effectively, from afar…

i think if it were me i’e get to a machine OUTSIDE of that grouping
and do a fresh/format install while connected to the internet and let
it update connected directly to the four basic repos (oss, non-oss,
update and packman) ONLY and then use it forever and see it does not
show the problem you describe, ever!

THEN, compare the corrupted three (or more) systems to the new and
fine running system until you learn what is wrong in the work group
computers…

ok, hopefully someone else has a better idea…


DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
posted via NNTP w/TBird 2.0.0.23 | KDE 3.5.7 | openSUSE 10.3
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CMedia 9761 AC’97 Audio

Thanks, yeah I suspect it’s how the systems were set up. I remember back in 2008 I had openSUSE 11.0 on my machine and this wasn’t a problem. But now I think every system that’s got 11.1 seems to have the problem.

Our IT person has a pre-set up installation system I think, which he uses it to install new OSs and it’s done automatically so it must be how it’s set up. I have no idea what he repos he uses (franky, I think he’d be a bit offended if I told him that he must’ve set up something wrongly).

I used to have 11.1 on my own laptop and never had such problems. Thanks anyway.

A positive approach: it’s a feature, called ‘random desktop’ ;). I cannot think of any simple way to achieve this.

Lol yes if you like uncertainty in your life. For me I like things set up the way I have set up them up, I like routine, structure. Right now every time I enter my username and pass I keep praying for it to login to KDE.

I cannot imagine that this can be solved without root perms. Of course you don’t want this. And if you would you would want to have some radio button to turn the feature on and off. Or run randomly as well :wink:

I had this same problem once with 11.1. First install kde added gnome as second desktop and after adding gnome it would randomly switch which one I got even when using the launcher button to specifically select.
I can tell you that at first I set it to auto log me in by accident then had to go into Yast and change it to alway use independent log in. I also had to change the DE chooser to always use default of KDE and turn on allow DE switching.
Once all this was done as root, everything worked great. With 11.2 I had no problems with multiple DE’s.

Cheers! I’ll have to ask the system administrator to do it for me as I don’t have root access to these machines. Presumably this is all done in YaST?

Cheers! I’ll have to ask the system administrator to do it for me as I don’t have root access. Presumably this is all done in YaST?

techwiz03 wrote:
> I had this same problem once with 11.1.

amazing! i thought there was no hope to find a potential solution!!
+1 for you!!


DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
posted via NNTP w/TBird 2.0.0.23 | KDE 3.5.7 | openSUSE 10.3
2.6.22.19-0.4-default SMP i686
AMD Athlon 1 GB RAM | GeForce FX 5500 | ASRock K8Upgrade-760GX |
CMedia 9761 AC’97 Audio

Thanks but in Linux, there are 4800 different settings that interact to one extent or another. All it takes is a little browsing in Yast and the installed DE’s to grasp the potential. The downside is that if you don’t root access you can’t access most of the settings. Couple this with the fact that an enormous number of IT’s got their training and understanding in a M$ certified system where the power and features of a professional OS are foreign territory.